A telescope mounted on a lighter-than-air platform (balloon) at an altitude above 60,000 ft would be above all clouds and weather and would offer imaging quality nearly on par with spacecraft like the Hubble Space Telescope. We are part of a group of Caltech and JPL scientists and engineers investigating the possibility of building a high-altitude, long duration vehicle platform for atmospheric and astronomy that would offer a new, much lower-cost access to near-space conditions.
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[more]Some types of stars end their lives in highly energetic explosions known as supernovae. Over the past 75 years, astronomers have discovered nearly three hundred remnants of supernovae in our Milky Way galaxy, and over a 1000 remnants in several neighboring galaxies. Many key properties of supernova remnants depend on knowing the remnant's distance from us, a quantity that is hard to accurately measure. Since distances to stars is relatively easy to determine with good precision, we have...
[more]Stars around 10 times or more massive than our Sun end their lives when they run out of light elements to convert into heavier elements thus making energy. When they run out of such nuclear fuel, the star's central regions collapse under the weight of the layers above, crushing the gas forming a neutron star which ironically releases more energy than the star produced during its entire lifetime. Such stellar deaths are seen as supernova outbursts. Our knowledge about many of the important...
[more]This project is to develop a long duration, high-altitude LTA platform optimized to use solar heating to generate lift and intended to loft small payloads in the range of 5–20 kg mass. The envisioned platform is a hybrid system building upon the well-established zero-pressure balloon technology employed by NASA but adding a solar energy capture and containment element to increase the lifting capability during daylight hours. The objective is to demonstrate the utility of solar heating for...
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American Physical Society announces "Outstanding Referees" for 2017
Contact: Eunice Toro, American Physical Society, [email protected], 631-591-4047
Ridge, NY, 18 January 2017 — The American Physical...
[more]Title: Fossil Records of Outbursts From Supermassive Black Holes and the Effects of Outbursts on the Evolution of Gas Rich Galaxies, Groups, Galaxy Clusters (Video)
Abstract: Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) play key roles in galaxy and cluster evolution. This is most clearly seen in the "fossil record" that is imprinted in the gas rich atmospheres of early type galaxies, groups, and clusters by powerful...
[more]Title: Searching for the Secrets of the Non-Linear Universe (Video)
Abstract: We have no evidence that general relativity is wrong; every precision test is a resounding confirmation of this elegant and powerful mathematical model. Trouble is: the greatest cosmological problems of our time (likely require) us to abandon general relativity. About 95% of the Universe...
[more]Title: Galactic Archaeology, Chemical Tagging, and Stellar Evolution (Video)
Abstract: Galactic Archaeology describes the ongoing effort to understand the formation and subsequent evolution of the Milky Way galaxy through the analysis and interpretation of (very) old stars. I will begin with an overview of Galactic Archaeology and then...
[more]Title: Tipping the Quantum World Critically Out of Equilibrium (Video)
Abstract: From the cooling of the early universe to quenching in magnets, driving a system through a continuous phase transition results in fascinating dynamics. Close to the critical point separating two phases of matter, the intrinsic relaxational timescale...
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